Inspired by Jeroen Diepenmaat's Xerox collage art book, "co//age co//py", sound artist Jos Smolders developed these tracks as a response through 9 brief works and one larger construction, intersecting voice, synth, sax, piano and field recordings in a mix of oddly and abruptly sliced sound offset with periods of beauty; a compellingly curious album.
"Visual arts have always been very inspirational to Jos Smolders. "I can really be knocked out by a painting, a sculpture when I first encounter it." The same happened when he first set eyes on Jeroen Diepenmaat's 'co//age co//py': black and white collaged images that are xeroxed and compiled into a booklet. Anyone with scissors and access to a xerox machine can do it. But Jeroen Diepenmaat kicks xerox art to a next level.
"So, I saw the book. Online. Ordered it. And the minute I opened it when it had arrived I felt a connection to it. I know it sounds a bit exuberant but it pulled me right in, into an experience of feeling the paper surface, smelling the ink, interacting with the images. After leafing through the book I decided that it would be an interesting experiment to translate to music that first experience, complete with the almost meditative concentration that I had just experienced."
And so, in a matter of a few - very hot summer- days Jos Smolders recorded a dozen or so small works, that each focuses on an image. Each piece starts with the turning of a page, soaking up what is presented, digesting that, and moving forward to the next page. "I use the word digesting specifically to avoid the word analysing. Analysing is cerebral and that was exactly what i tried to avoid. The object really was to avoid clear and objective thinking, rationalising. Gut feeling was given the main stage here."
Each time Jos Smolders just concentrated on the image. On the sounds already present. Questions like: what does this image dó to me? What images / experiences does it remind me of? "The saxophone came at the perfect moment. I heard my neighbour rehearse. Texted him to play 'something' somewhat louder from his window and recorded it. No overdubs. Just that." Other things needed preparation to realise, like the numbers and letters. But the execution was purely intuitive.
"I'm really glad that Jeroen and Harco agreed to release this little gem. On cassette. Not the best sound quality but exactly right. Just like the book itself. Not the best quality of image. But just right."
Jos Smolders started working with a Philips reel to reel recorder when he was 15 years old. During the early 1980s, when he was studying at the university he got exposed to Schaeffer/Henry's Symphonie and began researching and made his first collages and recordings. From there things evolved. He has recorded countless albums and collaborations and is also a mastering engineer working mainly in the field of electronic music. "-esc.rec